The Other side of Things
by Sonomura
Summary: He had been her obsession ever since she learned of her true identity, she had invested years and months of her life to be with him, but one thing is keeping him from her: His childhood friend Sophia Esteed.(Possibly AUMaria centric)
1. Prologue

**The other side of things**

Disclaimer: As much as I'd like to own the Star Ocean Series, it's clearly belongs to Square Enix, and certainly not mine.

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I despise Sophia Esteed

I know that it may sound utterly cruel for me to say, but it's true. I despise that girl, and wish nothing more then death, even though most people tend to grow fond of her the first time they lay eyes on her. How could they not? She was the epitome of _'goodness'_, a girl filled with kindness, a fragile creature that needed to be '_protected_', the _'perfect'_ daughter, what most men would want as their girlfriend. What _he_ prefer as his girlfriend. Not me. _The strong-willed ice bitch_. No sir, I was only _best friend_ material, unlike _her_ and no matter how much I tried to show him that I care for him, he'd never really notice.

She tries to befriend me and I couldn't completely turn her down, _he_'d be disappointed about me otherwise, so I had to act _nice_ to her. Be her _friend_, although I try to keep my distance from her if I could. She sickens me to no end with that I silently wished the Vendeeni killed her while she was in their captivity. She was nothing but a nuisance, but that didn't keep her from ensnaring him under her wicked charms.

_He_ had been my obsession before any of this has ever even started, we were meant for each other. The symbological genetics in the fiber of our beings dictated so, before we were born, before _she_ was even _born_. How dare she keep me away from what was _mine_?

Does she know everything about him? Has she carefully kept track of everything he does and everywhere he went? Has she count the days as she dreamed of finally meeting him in person? Of course she hasn't. She was able to be near him ever since she could remember, but even so, I doubt that she knew as much about him asI do. Surely she couldn't have hacked into classified federation data as I have. What I feel for him was more then mere puppy love as hers, mine was an _obsession_âone that was could be called unhealthy, if not dealt with in the right way.

Why don't I let you be the judge? Who's more suited for him? Her or I?

Let me tell you my side of the story, of how things come to be. Then you'll surely agree that he and I are bounded by fate.

My name is Maria Traydor, and this is my story

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So there you have with, my first SO3 fic, driven from imagination into words by the help of damned Blair whom I can't seem to defeat. --; Soâyeah, this is probably one of the most half-assed prologues you've come across. silently wishes that she has a beta-reader to help her with her crappy grammar

This fic is probably going to be a Maria/Fayt/Sophia coupled with another pairing that you'll probably find out soon enough. I'll probably make this a bit AU or something but I have loads of things planned in my head and I'm still not sure which way I should pick.

I seriously hope that I could keep Maria and the rest of the cast in character while trying to push this fic towards the humorous direction. So I'd need every type of c/c I could get. so if you're reading this, please pretty please click that ickle button down there and help me make my first SO3 fic a success?


	2. How it All Began

**Disclaimer:** Once again...as much as I'd like to own some of the characters from the SO series...it entirely belongs to SquareEnix.

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Chapter 1: How it all Began

It all started when I first learned about my true heritage, about 7 years or so when I thought I lost everything I had. I was prepared for the worst, but it seems fate was on my side. I was given another chance to find out about myself, and that was what motivated me to find out more about my parent's life prior to their moving to Federation Station #17.

_Was I an Expellian as my mother? _

_Where did she adopt me from? _

_Who were my real parents? _

_Why did they abandon me? _

_Who exactly am I? _

At first those were the questions that haunt my dreams and nightmares, I tried to seek out these answers as much as I could, as much as the child that I was then could, but I couldn't find out anything more then what I already knew.

My more _intense_ researches didn't start until I started to dig deep into my mother's life on Federation Station #5, Moonbase, the period in which she was working for a professor name Robert Leingod. There actually wasn't much information as to what they were researching about in that facility but for some reason, I had an inkling feeling that I would find an answer to my questions if I am able to learn more about those researches. Being one of the best programmer on the team and my knowledge on computers really came in handy when I tried to access the federation's classified data. By those possibly-illegal means, I managed to learn about most of the experiments that go on in that facility during my mother's employment...except for one. It was the _forbidden experiment_ that Professor Leingod and his crew conducted, something that the only higher ranked federation members knew about, and I was _itching_ to be able to learn more about it.

Unfortunately my little digging spree didn't go unnoticed by the captain and his partner Mirage and although they never asked me straight out, I could tell by some of the suspicious glances that Cliff sends me. They probably respect my privacy about the matter and decided to wait until I was ready to tell them all about it, I was grateful for that and I could've possibly keep these little secrets to myself forever, if not for the incident with the Federation ship '_Invisible_'. After that incident, they were forced to question me about my mysterious powers and my little sessions spent going through secret federation data. Looking on the bright side, at least I was able to pinpoint my next research to be focused the data in Leingod Research Lab. That's when I learned about the origin of my power..._our _powers, his and mine, how I know that we were made for each other...that I wasn't alone.

Surprise as I was to learn about this newfound 'power', I was more surprise at what happened few months later, when Cliff decided to give me his position as captain of the ship. He told me that that he decided that it was time for him to let the new blood step in and after he noticed how much leadership potential I had in me in the time of crisis, he couldn't pick a more better person that he could trust to do a good job as he did. What happens after this announcement however, wasn't a surprise at all, it had always been a factor that a female leader's abilities were often looked down at by some close minded people, and I never expected that everyone would go along with this little change.

Sometimes later when I heard that the Leingods were going to take a vacation in Hyda IV, I immediately seized this opportunity to have the chance of finally meeting the famous Professor Leingod in person and of course...his son. There were so many questions that I wanted to ask them, but I never got the chance to. Thanks to those wretched Vendeens, my meeting with him was further more delayed. I decided to send Cliff and Mirage to retrieve him for me, to be truthful I wanted to go myself, but I knew that it wasn't possible, I still had some trouble with another mission, and I know that I could trust Cliff and Mirage to bring him back safely.

But Guess what? Just when I heard that Cliff had successfully found him on Vanguard III, Who could've shown up but the Vendeeni? Hurray for them, they couldn't have turned up at a better time, and I thought the Aldians were the most discombobulating...did they ever prove me wrong.

Elicoor II was where Marietta picked up the Eagle's distress signal, according to our information database, it was considered to be an undeveloped planet... I wished hopefully that Cliff, despite his brash plans and actions, would know better then to emergency land somewhere that won't draw too much attention and that Mirage would be able to keep them out of trouble. Judging from the Diplo's current position, it would probably take us awhile before we could reach the Elicoor system, even with our gravatic warp engine. After what has happened at Hyda IV and Vanguard III It would be wise not to alert the other organizations about Fayt's whereabouts, just in case that the Vendeeni where tracking him through us.

"Captain, we got a message from the Eagle. It's Mirage, would you like me to put her on screen?" Marietta asked, calling me back from my thoughts, I nodded curtly for her to go ahead.

"This is Eagle calling Diplo, do you read me?" I heard Mirage said as the screen turned on, the picture was a little frizzy, but I was still able to make out her face.

"We read you, this is Maria speaking, what's the current status report?"

"Captain, thank god, for a moment there, I thought that the communicator might not work. We were attacked along the way to the meeting point, we're currently on a planet in the Elicoor system."

"We learned as much, we're on our way to pick you up. What about Cliff and the Leingod boy? Are they with you at the moment?"

"We lost control and accidentally landed in a populated area, the local habitants came down to investigate out ship and well..."

"Go on." I said, sitting down in my seat, bracing myself for the worst that could happen.

"Cliff suggested that he and Fayt go out to negotiate with the habitants, he told me to contact you and sneak out at night, unfortunately he and Fayt were captured by the natives...I haven't heard from them since. I would go and rescue them, but Cliff instructed me not to. Would you like me to go?"

My heart almost skipped a beat when I heard the news, anything could be happening to Fayt at that moment! What the hell was that Klaus Ian thinking? It took me awhile to calm down and thinking straight, before I gave Mirage a suitable reply.

"No, don't. I don't know what he's thinking, but maybe he has a plan up his sleeves."

'_Oh yes he'd better have, or I swear I'll strangle him myself should anything happen to Fayt'_

Giving me a nod, the female Klausian logged off and I let out a sigh, silently hoping that nothing would happen to Fayt Leingod before we get there, but who knows...with a _guide_ like Cliff by his side, it was unlikely that trouble wouldn't come knocking on his doors.

And that was one of the reason why, that as soon as The Diplo entered Elicoor's orbit (which took way longer then I expected), that I got on one of our smaller shuttles and quickly headed followed the signal from Mirage and Cliff's communicator and landed on Elicoor II, carefully concealing the small spacecraft, before I used the ship's transporter to travel towards my destination.

Satisfied that I was transported to the right place, I smiled inwardly before I made my presence known...

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A/N: I think that about sums this chapter up...I'll edit the last part as soon as I go back and reply to that point again. This chapter is mainly focused to wrap up everything at the beginning of the game from Maria's POV so that I could get into more Maria/Fayt action.

I'd also like to thank everyone who reviewed me; I nearly doubled over in joy when I receive my review alert -mails at school. :D

Event: I can't wait to read your fic! Thanks for being my first reviewer! glomps and yuppers...I think Maria is a bit ooc myself, but she's just that cold to a Sophia and a few more people in general (you can see from how she acts in this chapter). Her views on Sophia are how I imagined she felt from some of the gestures she made towards her (I swear to god that in one of the scenes, she really looks sickened by Sophia's words/action), and the reason I think Maria to be somewhat of a cold person from time to time was based on one of the Diplo's crew member said about her and how she acted in the flashback sequence. I figure that facing a traumatic thing as she did could probably do that to her personality.

taekmkm: As I've said...I haven't finished the game entirely yet, but my cousin has, and he got the Maria ending, which inspire me to write this fic along with giving me ideas for some other ones. I myself am looking forward to getting either the Albel ending or the Nel ending (although I have an inkling feeling that I might get solo) I also agree! SquareEnix should've given us more to learn about her character.

Tala1: LOL I just noticed that my fic was the first non-Albel one. XD It doesn't mean that I'm not planning on writing an Albel fic though! To tell you the truth, my favorite characters are Albel and Maria. I've written this fic because I was inspired by the Maria ending of the game, and because of that same ending, my brain was jumpstarted into composing an AU Albel/Maria fic (now dubbed "MaBel" in my head) which is waiting to be updated right now on my comp...I just need to double check a few things before I post.

Jonathan Priest: OMG you reviewed my fic! I never got a chance to E-mail you back and thank you for giving me your blessing on my Suikoden fic, and I'd also like to say that I'm dying to read the next chapter of yours! wishes you update soon

clears throat Back to the SO3 Topic...if not the fact that she has decent magic skills, I wouldn't have looked at her twice, both her face and her voice annoys me...almost as much as Farleene's. finds Albel's over quoting of maggots and fools funny though

I also agree with you that SquareEnix has the _greatest_ taste in choosing pairings, they were probably high on something when they decided that Fayt and Sophia make a good pairing...thank god that they let us get alternate endings in the game. I have to say though that between Sophia and Rena, I'd choose Rena anyday, I adore Rena. thinks she and Dias make a better couple then the default one

You caught me; grammar-wise verb tenses are my weak point and bad thing is that it's the only thing that MSWord couldn't help me fix. So I have to try and ask my cousin to beta-read for me from time to time, and even that isn't helping me much.

Once again thank you all for your reviews and once again c/c is welcomed, as I really need them to help me improve my writing skills, so every comment counts!


	3. Of Gods and Destiny

Disclaimer: Star Ocean: Till the end of Time, belongs to SquareEnix/TriAce, although I'm trying to find a way to lay claim on some of the characters from the series...

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Chapter 2: Of Gods and Destiny

The Vendeeni were like rabid dogs that didn't know when to give up.

We had successfully left Elicoor II and we were safely boarded on the Diplo, but things were once again taking a down toll. The Vendeeni unfortunately had Professor Leingod in their hands and demanded us to trade _the Leingod boy_ for him.

I had prepared some soldiers for this trade, no matter how much they attempted to convince us that it would be a fair one, I highly doubt that people like them wouldn't have dirty tricks up their sleeves. . I had to plan my moves carefully...one wrong turn and we'd lose both Dr. Leingod and Fayt.

_Fayt..._

He was different from how I first imagined him to be. He was an optimist, filled with courage that made him charming in his own way. He was what you could consider a born fighter...and an amusing person too. I find myself smiling a lot more then I normally do, when I'm around him.

I could tell that I was growing more and more fond of him, he was one of the few people that I shared my past with, and it pained me to know that it was only one-sided. It was evident that he was rather protective for _that girl_, seeing how he reacted to the Vendeeni's threat. I wonder how he'll react should I ever be in that kind of jeopardy.

I closed my eyes and my mind wandered back to our conversation before we left Elicoor, while we were waiting for the Elicoorians to prepare their Runological weapon on the gigantic dragon's back, when he came to talk to check on me in the castle's chapel.

"_Oh. Fayt. Saying your final prayers?" I asked him, when I noticed him come in and took the place beside me, staring at the deity statue behind the altar. "Well, I can relate."_

"_Is that what you're doing? Praying, I mean. You don't...strike me as someone who believes in something like this." He said suddenly, I raised an eyebrow and turned to face him. He immediately gave me an apologetic look. "Ergh...Sorry. That didn't come out as I expected, I didn't mean to offend you in any way."_

"_It's okay." I replied, a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips "I don't know..."_

"_Huh? What do you mean?"_

"_I don't know if I believe in a 'god'. Well...actually I was going to say that I don't believe in those things, but I..." I turned my gaze back to the stainglassed windows. "Do you believe in destiny, Fayt?"_

"_Destiny?" He asked, tilting his head slightly as he crossed his arms to his chest._

"_Yes...destiny. That is what I believe in. That everything that happens has a purpose, a means to an end. I always believed that ever since I lost my parents..." I paused and looked down at my hand. "...and learned about my powers."_

"_Maria..." His voice was filled with...what? Concern? Pity? Sympathy? I wasn't sure._

"_Fayt, how do you feel...Learning about your new powers? Do you...blame your parents about never telling you anything about it before?" I decided to change the subject, brushing away whatever emotion I was feeling before then. A leader shouldn't be seem looking emotionally distressed, even if there was only me and him in that room, I shouldn't be seen sulking over something that has long passed._

"_I'm not sure..." He finally replied after a moment of silence, absently scratching the back of his head. "I should say that I've been surprised at first, even freaked out maybe, but after giving it some thoughts...I feel that I should ask the truth from my parents before I make a final conclusion. It's true that what they've done is wrong, but at least we should hear their side of the story first, right?"_

_His answer surprised me, but I never knew that he was actually being mature about the situation and not going into denial or something like that. _

"_By the way, as an answer to your previous question, yes. I believe that some things were meant to be a means to an end as you've said, but I also believe that we're free to choose our own paths. That although destiny motivates us towards a destination, it is actually our own choice to choose which path we'll take to get there from the multiple paths that are lain down in front of us. Each path and turns with different surprises for us to experience and new people to meet, so that life will never be boring." He explained, pausing for a moment once he was finished before he asked "I'm not confusing you, am I?" _

"_No. You're not." I answered, chuckling slightly "I'm just thinking that the more I talk to you, the more I learn that you're different from how I imagined you to be." _

"_Really? What have you thought about me?" He questioned, a smile forming on his lips "You've mentioned something like that before too, and I've been wondering for awhile now on what it is."_

"_It's a secret." I told him in a teasing manner, eyes twinkling with hints of amusement. _

"_Okay then. Have it your way." He shrugged, before flashing me another one of his half amused/ half disappointed smile that I notice him wear from time to time. "I wonder if I should go check on the others."_

"_You haven't talked to them yet?"_

"_Well, I met Cliff on the way here, but originally I intended on looking for you."_

_I arched an eyebrow, what could he possible mean by that? I felt a bit...happy that he wanted to see me._

"_I wanted to ask you if you're sure that this plan would work...I really don't want to cause the Elicoorians anymore trouble then I've already had..." He looked concerned_

_I shook my head, "I'm not 100 sure, but you could say that I'm...praying. I know that it's stupid, but it wouldn't hurt to try. I mean, if the gods could guarantee that our strategy would succeed, even I'd become a believer in an instant."_

"_I just hope you're right." He said, before turning around to leave "Maybe all we could do now is pray that the Vendeeni will take the bait..."_

The decoy turned out to be a success (or wasn't it?), as I've mentioned before, but we weren't the ones who've initiated the attack that obliterated the Vendeeni warship to nothingness. It was destroyed by an unknown powerful beam of light. I wondered if it was an answer to our 'prayer' from the gods, or rather it was what I was wondering before I learned that this same force was also looking forward to destroy Earth.

I was called back from my flashback session, when Marietta announced that we were once again floating above Elicoor II. I told her to descend to a point that we could transport to the 'meeting place' with the Vendeeni before I turned on the PA and made an announcement that we were ready to teleport to the Kirsla Training Facility.

I'd promise him that everyone would return safely, that everything would be alright, and that's what I intended to do. He had my word on it as both Maria Traydor, his friend, and the Maria Traydor that was the leader of Quark. With this new-found determination, I got up from my seat and made my way towards the Bridge's exit. Unfortunately my determination to rescue _everyone_ safely from the Vendeeni's clutches had made a detour, my wished for everything to turn our alright had completely disappeared when I'd officially met _her_. If destiny really liked to gave us surprises for us along the way, to make our lives more enjoyable as Fayt had said, _she_ was certainly the most unpleasant experience of them all...

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Author's note: That little scene in the church was a little mixture of a PA in Arlias, which I never actually got, but read from a FAQ and wrote about it on how I imagined it to be and a add in/ edit of Maria's little speech before the final cutscene in Elicoor II.

Jonathan Priest: I sent you a summary of it through E-mail. :D Thanks for your recommendation too, I'll try to include that along with attempting to improve my verb tense problem as much as I can.

OmegaShadow: Heheheh...thanks! It's good to hear that from a Sophia fan, when I first posted this fic, I was afraid that the Sophia fans may burn me alive with flames. shivers in fear at the thought of that

T.M.M.S.: I'll try to lengthen my chapters up a bit more as you suggest. :) and as for Maria's hating Sophia, she doesn't really start out Hating her, more like her dislike for Sophia develops the more time she spends around her, thus evolving into hate...or at least that's what I think.

CodenniumRed: Thank you, I'm glad that you like this story :D

Gorbash: Ooh! Thanks for telling me that, I'll have to update my disclaimer.

Event: Thanks for reviewing me again! BTW I just read your story, and I want to tell you that I really enjoy it!

Tala1: lol I have trouble keeping them in character from time to time too, it's probably because I don't know much about her (thanks the producers not giving us much info about her) and that I'm more used to working with dark mentally challenged or broody characters...I think. And yup, I do use MSN, give me your e-mail addy and I'll add you to my list My screename right now is "Currently obsessed with Albel the Wicked XD" giggles I warn you though, that English isn't my first language, and it may take some time for you to reply to you when you IM me since it's difficult for me sometimes to think up a word for a suitable reply right away.


	4. Frisson?

Disclaimer: Star Ocean belongs to SquareEnix/TriAce, if it had belonged to me...the game would've been full of alternate pairings...

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**Chapter 3: Frisson?**

I swear that I didn't want to shove a sword down her throat to make her shut up the first time I saw her, I actually planned on befriending her at first to bring myself closer to Fayt's childhood. I can't believe how miscalculated I've been on that matter, even more miscalculated then my not expecting the Vendeeni to use a transportation jammer. It was a good thing that Nel showed up when she did...or who knows what would happen. I can't say that I'm happy though that we lost Professor Leingod in the process...he was after all, one of our only clues to learning the potential of our power, but in some way, I felt...satisfied yet...sad that he was dead. I'm not really sure how to describe this feeling.

I knew that Fayt was taking the news pretty bad, I've been at that point before in my life and I understood how he must've felt. The Esteed girl however probably has no idea. When I arrived at Fayt's room, I noticed that she was making the fatal mistake of being _sympathetic_ and told me to show a little more sympathy towards him.

"How could you say that!? His father just died!" was what she told me.

Honestly. Everyone knows that keeping a sad person locked in their own shell of mourning, only served to push them more towards their breaking point. That was a fact that I personally know. So I told her just that. That there was no use in mourning.

Thank the lords that Fayt had enough sense to understand my words and told us that he was ready to meet the captain of the Aquaelie. He said that it was the only way he could go Moonbase and prove what his father told him as he lay dying in his arms.

What surprised me was that he suddenly showed up later at the room that I was occupying in the Aquaelie while I was doing some last minute review on some old information that I found on the Moonbase research facility's database.

"Maria?" He asked, as he entered the room "Ergh...are you busy?"

"No, I'm not. Is there something you need?" I answered, turning my chair to face him.

"I...whoa...wait, _is _that my dad on the projector there?" He stated upon seeing the hologram of a younger version of Dr.Leingod.

"Erm...yes. I'm searching the research facility's database again to see if there are new things added from the last time I checked."

"So did you find anything?'

I shook my head "Everything is the same as the last time I'd checked; there isn't there anything new at all. I don't think that you father would lie to us...perhaps there is something that I missed..."

"Could it be that the data dad was talking about, could only be accessed at the lab directly?"

"It could be..." I looked over the information on the screen one more time, before I turned back to him "For the time being, would you like to see the file that I could access to from here?"

Once I received a nod from him, I immediately typed in the confirmation code to gain access to the data and replayed it again on hologram projector.

"Thank you..." Fayt suddenly said out of nowhere.

"For...showing you this file?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"For reminding me earlier that mourning wouldn't do me any good. This was what I wanted to tell you at first."

"Oh..." I stared down at my feet, letting this information sink it "I'm sorry...I really sounded harsh back then."

"It's okay, you weren't harsh...I know that you meant to cheer me up." He said, giving me a reassuring smile. "Really Maria...thanks."

"You're...welcome...I guess." I smiled back at him. I then took notice that he was staring at me, laughing about something to himself. "Is there something on my face?"

"Remember how you told me that you have this interpretation of me before we first met? Well, I have one for you too." He grinned, sitting down on the edge of the bed that was opposite of my seat.

"Interesting enough, let's hear it."

"I actually thought that you were going to be some, excuse me but, I seriously thought that you would be some vicious old hag or a dictating geezer judging from how Cliff talks about you."

"Oh really? How does he talk about me?" I asked

I could care less about what anyone thought about me, but I really wanted to know what kind of garbage Cliff had decided to feed to Fayt, while knowing full well how...drawn I was to the blue haired college student. Also for some reason, I felt as if I heard this interpretation of me from somewhere before...

"He really didn't say much about you...it's just the way he _talks_ about you and your personality, when mentioning something about you, which gave me those ideas. Basically...he described you to be a very 'sca-ree' individual." He made a quotation mark in the air, and then used pulled his face into a 'scary' look to emphasize his point.

"So what do you think now?" I chuckled, amused by his actions. I also find it funny that his portrayal of me was somewhat similar to those of..._oh, I get it now._

_So that's where those new Quark recruits got that idea from._

I was a bit absorbed in planning to interrogate Cliff on that matter, that I didn't quite make out what Fayt had just murmured as a reply to my question.

"Pardon?" I lifted my gaze to his face, taking notice that he was looking another way with a hand covered over the lower half of his face. I then took noticed that he looked a bit flushed, his face showing a light tint of red. Was he..._blushing_? _Why_ was he?

Apparently my question was answered when he repeated his previous statement, in a way that could almost be mistaken for a cough...but I understood it fully.

"You...think I'm...cute? Why?" I finally said, after replaying his words in the back of my mind several times.

"Well...ever since I started traveling with you, I noticed that you normally either have a serious look on your face or a completely stoic one and that you rarely laugh or smile. But you look very cute when you do...when you smile I mean." He muttered, still blushing as he absently scratched the back of his head. A habit that I noticed he liked to do when he was nervous.

For some reason, when he said all that, I felt that _girly feeling_ that was commonly found in those sappy romance novels that Marietta liked to read (and liked to push me to read, might I add). What was it that they called it again? Butterflies in my stomach? A feeling that made my heart flutters?

Yeah, whatever. Let's just say that he tells me one of the lamest pick up lines (or was he just saying that to compliment me in a friendly way?), and I feel _head over heels _happy that he complimented me. See how pathetic I am, when I'm affected by my obsession for him? That, and probably the fact that I've never been called a _'cute' _person ever since I passed the age of 12.

_Should I ask him that? Oh what the heck...I'll just ask. What do I have to lose anyhow?_

"Is that meant to be a compliment or..." I titled my head to the side, smiling innocently at him "Is that your way of asking me to be your girlfriend?"

He choked on his own spit as soon as those words left my mouth and traveled to his hearing system. I don't know if that was a good sign or a bad sign, but just when he was about to make a reply, a hissing sound of the door slide opening drew both our attention to whoever the newcomer was.

It was the others, Cliff, Nel...and the Esteed girl.

"So Fayt, why do you look so flushed? Did we step in on a lover's conversation?" Cliff teased, tapping Fayt not-so-lightly on the back. Silence fell among us. I noticed that the Esteed girl visibly paled upon hearing Cliff's statement, Nel looked uninterested, while Fayt just alternated his gaze between me and Esteed.

_Why was he doing that?_

"For your information, we were just discussing the data I found whilst hacking into research facility's computer and I reckon that you all didn't come here just to tease us." I decided to break the silence, shutting down the computer before I got up from my seat. "So why are you here?"

A Cheshire cat grin appeared on Cliff's face, he was about to reply to my question but Esteed beat him to it...

"We came to find you and Fayt." She told us, I couldn't help but noticed that there was a glint of jealousy in her eyes. What did she have to be jealous about...Wasn't she the one who'd gotten to known him almost her whole life? Just a few moments of letting me share it with him possibly couldn't have hurt. "We're making a final approach towards Moonbase, the captain told us to get ready...The Enforcers seems to have started their attack there, so we should hurry." She walked over to Fayt and tugged at his arm. "Come on, let's go!"

Fayt took one last look at me, before he was pulled/dragged out of the room by the brunette girl, Nel followed suit. I sighed and shot Cliff a glare before I also followed them. As I was exiting the room, I could've sworn that I heard the blond haired Klausian whistled and mutter something about a new love triangle to play with.

I pray that it was merely my ears playing tricks on me.

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Author's note: And so ladies and gentlemen, the 3rd chapter of 'The other side of things'. I was going to do a full detailed scene on the 2nd Kirsla training facility even, but I've only gotten the Albel event before and I couldn't use Albel...due to obvious reasons (AKA My muse keep hitting me with ideas of putting him together with Maria, hence the birth of my other fic...). So I had to skip that part and used Nel instead, and to give this chapter some length, I edited yet another scene in the game that features Fayt and Maria alone, adding a bit of spice(or is it cheesiness?) to it. I hope I didn't ruin that scene completely...

Tala1: Heheheh...Maria's my second favorite character next to Albel, I like to alternate between them two depending on the situation. I agree with you that Fayt likes to just nods and go with everybody's plan. When I first bought the game I was hoping that we'd be able to choose between two main characters again, I was wishing that Maria'd be one of the two choices...shame that they canceled that option. I also thank you for your comment, might I also add that I'm really looking forward to the next installment of your fic? ;-)

T.M.M.S: Phew...I loaded one of my old saves to try and get that scene, but I still couldn't find it so I was worried that it'd turn off the topic. Thanks for confirming that for me. 3

Event: Sankyu for your comment :D I'm glad you liked that scene, I really enjoyed writing it, but I was a bit worried that it wasn't going to match that PA event as I intended it too. . , you're one of the FF authors who has a story that I'm eagerly waiting for an update.

Jonathan Priest: I believe that too...that Maria's a bit on the depression side, and that her affinity for Fayt, that he's one of her kind, was what motivated her to continue on to try and finally meet him. Anyhow, thank you for your review. D However it seems my e-mail is malfunctioning on me again, so I went ahead and posted it in your LJ, I hope that it worked this time...-prays-

Taekmkm: LOL I realized that too, that's why I decided to use the NA version of his name instead of the Japanese one like I'd prefer. and yeah...I couldn't stand to look at Sophia's face too long...the more I stare the more I realize that she doesn't have a nose. (Seriously, feel free to take a look at her when they zoom her face, her nose is almost non-visible) XP

Adam: the scene in this chapter be consider a semi-romance in your opinion?-smiles nervously-

A Lifeless Beauty: I'm glad you like. I find Maria to be a very fun character work with, the more I write and carefully study about her. She could be depressed from one minute, stoic at another, furious at one point and playful/teasing when she wants, last but not least, she has great leadership skills and fierce determination. I think I like her character almost as much as I like Albel...probably why my muse's constantly tempting me with ideas to write them as a pair.

And English is your second language too? O.O Meep! We definitely share the same opinion, because I thought that you were a native speaker of this language too when I first read your story. I'm quite surprised by this. Anyhow, I think you FF is tons better then mine, even if yours is Sophia centric and I'm not all that fond of Sophia as you can see . –sweatdrops anime-ishly-, I still think that you did a great job on Sophia's characterization and even made her less annoying to the point that I _think_ I _might_ be able to like her. –cheers for you to update soon-


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